Historian, scholar, and award-winning author Milton Meltzer outlines the struggle of African Americans for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” starting with the landing of the first slave ships on colonial shores. How did over 300 years of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws come to an end in the civil rights movement of the 1960s?

Storm Warriors

by Elisa Carbone

Driven from his home by the Ku Klux Klan and still reeling from the death of his mother, Nathan moves with his father and grandfather to the desolate Pea Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to start a new life. Fortunately, life on Pea Island at the end of the 19th century is far from quiet. The other island residents include the surfmen–the African American crew of the nearby U.S. Life-Saving Station–and soon Nathan is lending an extra hand to these men as they rescue sailors from sinking ships.

A Piece of Heaven

by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

A young teenager deals with her family’s disintegration with the help of a teacher who gives her a summer job working in his garden. Haley’s excited about turning 13, but her teenage years start off with a thud when, shortly after her birthday, her mother checks herself into the hospital for severe depression. Her older brother, Otis, is busy with his job selling clothes, and Haley tries to keep her mind off the family problems with her own job, helping a music teacher clean up his backyard garden. As Haley’s family life becomes more and more unstable, it’s her work and her growing friendship with her employer that sustain her.